Change of Scenery

It's been a while. That happens when you're as busy as I am - here is a rough rundown of my last two months:

December 18th-26th: took paid leave from work
December 26th-January 3rd: traveled to Davos, Switzerland for snowboarding and New Years
January 5th and 6th: worked
January 7th-January 14th: took paid leave from work
January 15th-18th: traveled to Florence, Italy
January 18th-January 29th: appointments and whatnot for leaving Bamberg
January 31st-today: I've run a couple times, lifted weights twice, and watched a good amount of TV

So, as one can see (seriously, check January 5th-6th again) I've had precious little time to attend to this here blog.

Besides the driving (should have been a 6-hour trip but with traffic it turned into 9 there and 10 on the way back), Davos was a real fun trip. The first day we snowboarded for the morning and then watched a hockey game between Davos and Karlovy Vary, a Czech team. Then for the next five days we snowboarded. It was extremely tiring, but worth it. The only part I would have improved (save for the driving) was the weather. It was cold and clear the first four days and didn't snow until the end of the week. A good couple inches right when we got there would have been prime.

The trip to Florence was a good break from German winter weather. When we left Bamberg it was around 30 degrees, cloudy, and snowing. When we landed in Florence it was sunny and close to 55 degrees. Penny and I went to a bunch of museums, including the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia, which houses Michelangelo's David. I never realized how big that statute actually is - 17 feet! Besides those museums, Penny and I climbed the dome of the Duomo and ate a lot of really good food.

Now I'm in a period of transition as I wait for my goods from Germany to arrive here in America (including my car). Then around the beginning of March I'll head north and west with planned stops in Woodstock, VT; Rochester, NY; and Chicago, IL on my way to Winfield, KS where I'll spend about two weeks before heading back to Germany. I'll be in Germany for two months before heading off to who knows where. I hope it is another overseas adventure.

On the cycling front, I haven't ridden in a long time due to the moving process, but my bikes should be here next week. Even if it is cold and snowy, I can at least ride the trainer. I'm excited to try out the new Northwave shoes and Dura-Ace pedals I purchased. I was thinking of getting a set of Look pedals, but with the sale price on the Dura-Ace and the fact that my other pedals are Ultegra, it made sense to go with two pedals with the same cleat so that I can jump on either bike and not have to worry about changing cleats.

Worth at Least 284 Words

With winter setting in and the temperature dropping, I've had less time to ride the bike. But at the same time it's still a little warm for any substantial snow fall. It sucks that we're in this transitional time where the conditions aren't conducive to riding my bike or snowboarding. Tomorrow I head down to Garmisch for three days where I'll hopefully get to snowboard for the first time this year (actually, first time in two years. Unfortunately I'll only have one day to ride). Even if the conditions aren't that great it should be an ample warm-up to the season. I'm planning a trip to Austria for the weekend of 18-21 December and then New Year's in Davos, Switzerland where I plan to ride for an entire week (all dependant on how much effort I put into après ski).

Penny and I spent last weekend in Italy. On Saturday we traveled to Venice and spent the afternoon walking around and sight-seeing. I haven't conducted any formal research, but I'm almost certain the only reason people still live in Venice is to provide workers for the tourist shops/restaurants/churches. Despite the fact that any small Italian village is more authentically "Italian" than Venice, we had a nice time navigating through the small alleys and watching the town slowly sink.

This past weekend Penny's parents came out to visit. An almost obligatory weekend adventure during December in Bavaria is a trip to the Nürnberg Christmas Market. At all Christmas markets there are numerous booths selling various wares from tree ornaments to handmade candles to knit hats. Out-numbering the vendor booths by about two to one are food vendors selling sausage, snacks, and glühwein, which is a spiced, mulled wine that is served warm. A lot of people really like it, though I believe that is only because drinking it is the "in" thing to do around the holiday season. For those that haven't tried it (and those that have and lie to themselves that it tastes good) it tastes like boiled gym socks (with an undertone of apricot and oak and a strong, lingering finish). Oh yeah, there are a crap load of people as well. So in the end you go there full of Christmas cheer, and you leave angry because you've been bumped into all day and you have no money left (with only an extra inch on your waste and the taste of gym socks in your mouth to show for it).

I've put up some pictures, scroll over them for captions.


This little guy is a riot - and not a quiet one I learned the other day. I saw this in Reykjavik and immediately thought that the producer of this product is sitting on a gold mine if he could market it for all children.






Enjoy the show. Nine more working days until I'm not in charge anymore. I can't wait to be responsible for only myself.

Are We Not Men?

I dared to go back.

I rode up by the Klinikum again today, the same area I rode when I first got my bike back from the shop. No tree-smashed bikes to contend with this time, just my lack of hydration, endurance, and skill. Oh yeah, and the mud. I could count the number of times I went down a hill sideways due to the amount of mud on one of those two-pronged forks made for the grill. Despite the over abundance of mud, it was a fun, challenging ride that got me out of the apartment on a day that was overcast, but ended in a very spectacular sunset.

Last weekend was the first weekend since September where I was able to get out and ride both days. I took my road bike off the trainer and hit the actual rode for a change. My initial excitement and joy at riding un-tethered would come back to haunt me. I felt so good because I had the wind in my face and every pedal stroke moved my bike forward, I immediately jumped to the big chain ring. After a couple miles of hammering it, I hit a wall that I never really recovered from. In the end I covered a mere 30 miles in two days of riding - less than what I would cover in one ride when the weather was nicer and work wasn't so time consuming.

I know after this weekend I'll want to ride every day. Penny and I are traveling to Italy to purchase a new bike. Penny isn't, she is just going to see more of Italy (neither of us have been to Florence so we'll probably spend a couple days there).

Enjoy Thanksgiving.

I Don't Know, I Don't Know What the Blog is About

Christmas - the only reason Rothenberg ob der Tauber - "above the Tauber River" (from here forward referred to simply as odT) exists. Seriously. For those of you in the know, the original Käthe Wohlfahrt store resides in odT. For those of you not in the know, check out this in-depth Wikipedia page. The reason I bring that up is Penny and I visited there last Friday. It was a nice little day trip. The following day we went south (odT is southwest of Bamberg) to Ingolstadt, the town I spent a month in through a school program during the summer of 2002. Again, a nice day trip though it was much colder on Saturday than Friday. I remember eating some goulasch soup at a restaurant called The Post Wagen during my time there. To this day I claim it is the best goulasch soup I've ever had. I'm not sure if it is because it was the first time I had real goulasch soup or not, but trying it again was one of my reasons for wanting to visit Ingolstadt. Unfortunately The Post Wagen is only open for dinner during the weekends and with an hour and a half drive awaiting us on the return trip to Bamberg we didn't want to stay that long. Oh well, maybe I'll be lucky enough to swing through one time this winter on my way back from snowboarding.

Remember when athletes first signed $10 million dollar-a-year contracts? Now it is pretty common to see salaries in the teens or twenty-million dollar range for baseball, basketball, and even football players. Heck, even golf now has the FedEx Cup which awards $10 million to the winner. Anyway, it appears as though Alberto Contador, this year's Tour de France winner (also winner of the Giro d'Italia, Vuelta Espana, and the 2007 TdF) has a contract offer from Astana for roughly 8 million Euros - or about $2,928,474 billion US dollars with the current exchange rate! Ok, maybe it's more like $12 million, but still, who would have thought that a cyclist would have a contract that big? Crazy. (Just on a side note that I placed in parenthesis to highlight the fact that it is a side note, here [scroll about halfway down and read the section called Keep 'Em in College] is an interesting article about college athletes and money.)

Life's Little Mysteries

The Tora 302 worked just fine. There might have been a deadly omen when we first ventured into the woods on our bikes, but we completely ignored it and everything worked in the end. (The omen was a bike that was smashed under a fallen tree. Don't ask why the bike was in the middle of the woods or how the tree fell on it, just believe it.)

It struck me today that weddings place disproportionate amounts of responsibility of men and women. It is tacitly expected that the bride-to-be will do all the planning, with little input from the groom. Yet we give the young boy chosen to be the ring bearer the (at least for name's sake) responsibility to carry and care for the wedding bands while the flower girl just throws old petals on the ground. Are we wrong in putting this idea in little girls' heads that their wedding day will be as easy, carefree, and blissful as throwing pretty flowers on the ground? Eh, don't answer that, it doesn't really matter.

Chock Full O'Bikes

Wow. Gilbert is on a tear. While not quit as ridiculous as Contador winning four Grand Tours in a row, winning four Fall Classics (Coppa Sabatini, Paris-Tours, Giro del Piemonte, and Giro di Lombardia) is downright unthinkable. Pretty amazing accomplishment since these races focus on different cycling strengths. Gilbert became only the fourth rider to win the Autumn Double, which consists of winning Paris-Tours (a flat race that favors sprinters - like Belgian Tom Boonen who Gilbert beat this year at Paris-Tours) and the Giro di Lombardia (a hilly race that favors climbers like Euskaltel-Euskadi's Samuel Sánchez, who finished second this year). Very impressive.

On a more local and personal note, I finally got my mountain bike (a Stevens S9 Elite) back from the shop. They replaced the Manitou Skareb fork with a Rock Shox Tora 302. The Manitou has a seal in it that ruptured four times - and I don't ride that hard. The Rock Shox Tora 302 isn't top of the line by any means, but I ride mostly cross-country when I do ride my mountain bike, so I'm not too concerned with getting the best money can buy. I plan to ride today for the first time, so we'll see how she holds up.

I think I've decided on my next road bike. I know in an earlier post I said I was leaning towards a Colnago, but I've shifted and am now leaning towards a new Bianchi 928.



The reason is that the 928 is the top of the line frame from Bianchi and I can upgrade the components, wheel set, cockpit, etc. as I feel.

Stay classy.

Say What!?

Here is a quick run-down of news I heard/saw/read about this past week:

President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize - ridiculous. He may eventually earn it, but it is way too early. The nominations had to be in by 1 February 2009, which means he was nominated either prior to, or in the first 11 days of, taking office. I've heard the arguments that he was chosen the winner as a consolation prize after Chicago didn’t get the Olympics or that the "committee" was trying to sway his decision on sending more troops (which is always used inappropriately - even here - since every definition of troop relates to more than one person or thing) to Afghanistan. Whatever, neither of those arguments change the fact that he was nominated for being elected president – and on speculation.

Tom Boonen was beaten in a sprint by his countryman Philippe Gilbert at Paris-Tours: Big Tom is getting old I guess. He just doesn't seem to have the legs that carried him to a world championship a few years ago or the Belgian National Championship this year. No matter, he'll always be a star in that country. Seriously, the guy gets in trouble for using a controlled substance - not testosterone or EPO or any other doping drug, but cocaine - and the people still love him. Me too.

Red Sox and Pats lost: Shut up.

I went to Iceland: It was a good trip, though short, expensive, and cold. It averaged about three degrees Celsius each day, but the wind was torture (probably not as bad as water boarding, but it did rain one night, so I guess that counts). Reykjavik is a small city with a small town feel. The "downtown" area was one road that had a tiny loop at the end that encompassed one Reykjavik city block - and it was one way. Seriously, it was like a sleepy coastal town (which, granted, it is) mixed with a sleepy ski town. But the food was great.